


Gunmetal

by lieforfun



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky doesn't know shit about his own technology, He's massively paranoid, Other, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Understandably, What's new, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, not his fault tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25228897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieforfun/pseuds/lieforfun
Summary: The Winter Soldier has been missing for over a year, until Tony finds him having broken into the tower and sitting at his kitchen table, unable to repair his own metal arm.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark
Comments: 24
Kudos: 100





	1. Chapter 1

Everyone in the tower knew for the most part that Tony tended to have a hard time sleeping. Call it what you want, PTSD, insomnia, whatever. He tried all the ritzy medications and herbal treatments and tricks Rhodey’s wife gave him, but none of them worked. And, if he was being totally honest, he didn’t really want them to work. 

Because every time he found himself unable to sleep, he slipped his way down into his labs to toy with whatever he chose to work on that night. In his opinion, his best work was done after 2 am, and most men in his field would hesitate to disagree. 

That particular night had been grueling. He lay in bed for hours, feeling nonexistent stares bore into his skull and listening to the deathly quiet that aroused the darkness. He knew logically that he was alone, that there was nothing to worry about, but he couldn’t quite get rid of the itch inside his skin that screamed “danger!” 

It was approximately 3:45 am when Tony decided to come up for air. He’d been knee-deep in a new prototype for the forearm shield compression during the use of a repulsor ray when he decided that it was definitely time for a sandwich. He could feel the oil and grit between his teeth, and he needed it gone, like,  _ yesterday.  _

He trudged up the stairs, mumbling to himself about measurements, not even half-sure if they were the correct ones anyway, reaching the community kitchen and throwing the lightswitch on for the main room. 

It’s not even like it was something that he did normally, touching the lightswitch. Usually all he had to do was to ask FRIDAY, but he was too busy mumbling to himself to talk to the AI, and he had been right by the switch, it seemed easy enough. 

Until the light came on, illuminating everything in the vicinity of the golden hue, including the dark figure sat stone-still at the kitchen table. 

Time seemed to freeze. Tony stared continuously at the wall behind the figure, too afraid to move even an inch to try and make out a face. Stone still for what felt like hours but was likely only a few minutes, Tony silently panicked. If he called out for FRIDAY, the intruder might kill him. If he moved toward the counter with the knives, intruder might kill him. If he so much as moved his head, it might be enough for intruder to kill him. 

Well, he must be losing a bit of his genius in his old age. 

Tony breathed in deeply but very, very slowly, and glanced over to take a look at the man’s face. 

Everything seemed to happen all at once, after that. The figure leaned forward so quickly it seemed nearly invisible, appearing to throw his weight in front of him, and Tony stumbled backwards, successfully tripping himself and nearly crashing to the floor. Instead there was only a thump and sharp intake of breath, luckily quiet enough not to alert the others. 

“Barnes,” Tony wheezed out, grappling with his balance to get back to his feet. Leaning against a wall solidly, he pulled his hands behind his back and pressed a button on the side of his watch. He felt the cool metal of a gauntlet piece itself together over his fingers. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t contact the authorities.” 

The soldier’s face was unreadable, as if Tony hadn’t said a word. His normally unkempt hair was pulled away from his face, most likely into a bun behind his head. His mouth stayed slack while his eyes never left Tony’s. Tony felt a shiver go down his spine. 

“I’m sorry.” The words were so quiet, Tony almost couldn’t believe that they came from the man in front of him. “I can’t fix it …not...not on my own.” 

Tony frowned, his fist clenched anxiously behind his back. “Can’t fix what?” 

The soldier looked down, down at his own arm that lay slack on the table. The metal one.

Getting Barnes down to the shop was an experience, to say in the least. The man was more skittish than a feral cat; though Tony couldn’t say much in that respect. His fingers were still covered in the nanotech gauntlet, ready to launch a repulsor beam at the first sign of trouble. 

Barnes moved quickly but limberly, another cat-like feature that Tony clocked for future reference. He certainly did NOT want to be alone with the supersoldier assassin, but he couldn’t imagine Barnes being totally cool with having anyone in the room with them. Much less Captain Fucking America, the guy he’d been avoiding like the plague for the last year. Speaking of which… 

“You know, Cap’s been turning the world inside out looking for you,” Tony finally said, matter-of-factly, once they’d stepped into his workshop. 

“I know.” Barnes’ voice didn’t get any louder once they’d reached their destination, as if he wasn’t sure how to speak at a level tone. Tony was, okay, a _ little _ disappointed, but he wasn’t shocked. He couldn’t imagine he’d been holding many conversations over the last 70 years he’d been held by Hydra, on top of the fact that his voice was just another recognizable factor while he was on the run. 

Tony led the soldier to a chair by the table with the least amount of in-progress projects scattered on top of it. He nodded toward the chair to have Barnes sit, then began to pace the room for tools he’d need. 

“Are you planning to let him find you?” Tony asked nonchalantly. Truth was, he wanted desperately to know the answer. Steve had been spending 90% of his time searching field records, SHIELD files, shipping out to fuck-all countries to look for Barnes. But it wasn’t just Tony who was worried about him. Sam was out there helping him, and while Tony had never been Sam’s number-one-friend, Rhodey had managed to find out from him that Steve was starting to lose hope, and that scared Sam. It scared Tony a bit too; Steve might lose hope, but he would still look under every crack and pulled-up brick for a glance at the man who used to be his best friend. 

Tony brought the tools back to the table, patting the top of it to gesture to Barnes to put his arm up on the surface. Barnes did so, but made no indication that he would answer Tony’s question. Just as well, Tony didn’t need chit-chat. The only reason he even agreed to fix the man’s arm was because he wanted to know how it worked. If he had an idea of what the insides looked like, of what made the weapon work, he might have an idea of how to stop it in the future if he felt he needed to. 

Looking at Barnes now, however, made him rethink his stance. He’s seen some hopeless faces before, sure, but Barnes had the look of a corpse. Blank. Hollow. Like whatever his eyes landed on, he saw right through it, into a pit, a hallucination of horror that he’d never escape. Tony felt a pang of guilt in his gut when he felt his own empathetic response. 

Tony sat down on the other side of the table, leaning forward to take hold of the metal limb. It was fucked, alright. Totally limp and incredibly heavy, had to be a solid 70 pounds on it’s own. Tony frowned when he thought about the idea of walking around with seventy pounds of dead weight attached to his shoulder. Barnes must be in more pain than he would care to admit. 

Moving on, he slid his fingers up from the wrist plate all the way up to the metal bicep, searching for an access latch. He hummed, finding the loose plate and sliding a thumb nail underneath it, flipping the metal up and out and detaching it to set on the table beside Barnes’ elbow. 

“Not yet,” Barnes spoke suddenly, spooking Tony enough to jump a bit. 

“Come again?” Tony choked out, a hysterical expression glowing on his face. What the hell, he doesn’t want Tony working on his arm yet? Wasn’t that the whole point of him breaking into Tony’s kitchen? 

Barnes cleared his throat, pupils widening almost inhumanly as he stared down at his own limp fingers. “You asked me if I planned on letting Steve find me. The answer is not yet.” He looked back up to stare Tony in the eyes, as if daring him to do something that might cause his answer to change. No need to worry about that, Tony got the idea. He is  _ not _ to tell anyone the man was here. He certainly didn’t want to know what would happen if he chose to ignore Barnes’ unspoken threat.

Tony shook his head absently, getting back to work. This was fine. They just had to make sure their tentative agreement was respected. If either of them crossed that invisible line of trust, one of them would end up dead. Tony had bets going that it would end up being the unenhanced of the two. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winter Soldier appears to Tony again for devastating repairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All mistakes are my own!

The soldier was gone by five in the morning. 

Turns out, things need oiled and cleaned in there every once in a while, or the dust (the dark colored substance Tony was going to continue pretending was just dust) will clog the gears, and shut down the tech connecting the man’s nerves to the circuits and effectively turning  _ off _ the prosthesis altogether. A safety precaution, if you could call it that, so that the man’s shoulder wouldn’t become infected. Tony, for obvious reasons, filed down as much information as he could about the prosthesis once he was sure Barnes had left. 

Tony didn’t sleep soundly until he passed out from exhaustion, two days later. 

Steve left the compound,  _ again _ . Tony wasn’t surprised, but he was worried. Why the hell was he worried? Barnes was more than capable of helping himself, and while Tony wasn’t exactly required to do a thing about the random appearance in his kitchen, he’d prefer it not to happen again at all much less under ~~angry~~ strenuous circumstances. But he could feel Steve leaving them. Not just physically. He was present for meetings, for movie nights, for missions, but his mind was somewhere else, and Tony had all but given up on saving him. 

Tony said nothing about the visit from their favorite brainwashed assassin, not even to Rhodey, but it did occur to him to check the footage around the tower and see where the crack in security was. Turns out, it was... well, everywhere. All footage captured from that night had missing sections of about 2 hours each. Shocked, Tony was not, but he was still miffed. Even Jarvis had missing chunks of information from that night. 

It wasn’t until several months had passed that Barnes showed himself again. Steve had been gone for 8 weeks already, only returning for emergency missions. Wilson was technically considered AWOL, but Tony knew better. Wilson’s mission was- _ find Barnes _ , and no one had seen or heard from the man other than Steve. 

Anyhow, this night had ended up just like a thousand before it. Tony unable to sleep, the need to work itching in his fingertips, that he jumped up and pulled on some sweats and made his way down to the common area, asking Jarvis to turn on the lights for him when he got there. 

No sign of anyone in the kitchen, like it had been for the last several weeks since he caught Nat rummaging through the cupboards, Tony made his way to the stairwell leading down to his workshop. 

He paused in the doorway to make sure the lights came on before he stepped inside, checking the corners and dark spaces before rolling his shoulders and walking in towards the desk and shoving his phone safely in his back pocket. 

With nothing suspicious to be found, he began working on his latest project without any significant bumps. He even got to playing some music, trying to kill the creepy vibe he got every time he went down to his workshop anymore. 

Several hours later, Tony finished the coding for his work, still listening to his music and doing what the kids called “vibing.” He decided weeks ago that going up to the kitchen for a late night coffee was no longer an viable option, so he installed a smaller refrigerator and a stark-rig (his own version of 1 pod sensation that is the keurig) for easy access to necessary fuel. Including, a tiny purple bottle of 5 hour energy. 

He ripped off the little wrapper around the lid and threw it back like a shot. The liquid was definitely  _ better _ than a shot, but it still left his mouth feeling repulsive. Turning to toss the plastic away, he was met with face to face with the last person he wanted to see. Tony jumped, and let out a squeak. 

“You know there’s a reason people call you a ghost story, but it’s not because you’re older than dirt,” Tony panted, pressing the heel of his palm into his chest. 

Barnes stared at him in question, head tilted in confusion. Tony sighed and rubbed his eyes in acceptance. “What’s wrong with it now?” 

Barnes offered his left hand, and Tony could see clearly what the issue was. The hand was mangled, falling apart, strung together by metal coated wiring. Tony cursed, reaching out to hold the hand together and in place so it didn’t fall apart onto the floor. The soldier tensed, but made no move to take the metal appendage from the other man. 

“Are you fucking nuts?” Tony sputtered, both hands wrapped around Barnes’ hand and looking around desperately. “Over here, put it on the table, sheesh.” 

They shuffled awkwardly over to Tony’s workstation, and Tony swept his previous project off to the side to make room for them. Barnes was as silent as ever, holding completely still for the engineer to fuss over the shattered pieces. 

When Tony was able to observe the limb better, he could see the cause of the destruction. Between Barnes’ index finger and middle finger, was a nearly clear split all the way down towards the wrist, ending where the scaphoid would rest in a real hand. The mangled pieces would be bleeding and gruesome where the split was, but the metal was melted at the edges, and wires stuck out at odd angles. 

“Can you move your…” Tony gestured absently in explanation. 

Barnes squinted at him, before looking down at his fingers. A moment passed and Tony was about to continue with the understanding that he couldn’t actually move them, when the metal digit that should have been the soldier’s pinky finger twitched. 

Tony released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “That’s...okay. You don’t feel any pain, right?” 

Barnes shook his head no. “Only pressure.” 

Tony tried not to let the rasp that came with the usually-quiet voice disturb him. It sounded like the man had recently been screaming. Tony absolutely did  _ not _ want to think about that. 

Tony shook his head. “Good. It looks like I’m going to have to weld some of the pieces back together.” 

Barnes nodded, as if he had expected that. He probably had, Tony thought, the arm likely needed hundreds of repairs over the years he’d been with Hydra. Again, more things Tony  _ really  _ didn’t want to think about. 

Tony got started, not questioning anything at this point, just focusing on putting the pieces back together. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Tony, are you alright?” 

Tony whipped his head up from where he sat staring aimlessly into his coffee, Rhodey’s face looking at him with concern. Tony shook his head and brought the heel of his palm up to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes. 

“I’m good,” He responded.  _ Just trying not to think about an escaped Hydra victim with a metal arm.  _

“Are you sure?” Rhodey pushed. He sat at the compound kitchen island, across the counter where Tony was decidedly  _ not _ having a staring contest with his coffee. “Something on your mind?” 

Tony sighed and sat back, finally bringing the mug to his lips to procrastinate his answer for a few moments. Twice now, Barnes had visited him. Aside from the utter disrespect of his security systems, Barnes now saw Tony as a viable option for safety, and Tony didn’t know how to go about the situation. After the first time, he had never wanted to see Barnes again. Doubled his security, changed his habits in order to avoid a run-in with the Soldier. But he still managed to invite himself into Tony’s workshop even with one hand metaphorically behind his back. 

Tony wasn’t afraid, so much, anymore. No, he was worried. Worried about Barnes coming back for help and being found by Steve, or Wilson, or someone who wasn’t Tony. He was worried that whatever happened to destroy [find a better verb] the man’s hand the first time might happen again. Tony wasn’t sure how he would feel if Barnes was injured, or worse, killed, if something like that happened and he wasn’t there to repair the arm. He knew Steve would be devastated. 

“Nah, just working on a project. It’s giving me a hell of a time.” Okay, not  _ technically _ wrong. 

Rhodey squinted at him knowingly and leaned forward to cross his arms over the counter. “Alright...want to go over the issue? Maybe talking it out might make the answer come through.” 

Shit.    
“It’s uh, not that simple.” Tony blanched, his eyes trailing to the door where Nat walked in with a burrito. 

She looked over at them with her brow raised. “No need to be so sus, Tony. You can tell us about your…’project.’” 

For a moment, Tony panicked, his eyes widened and his shoulders tensed. Does she know? 

Rhodey grimaced and turned toward her, his eyes on the food in Nat’s hand. “Really? It’s 8:30 in the morning, Romanov.” 

Nat smiled and cocked her head to the side, as if to taunt him as she took a bite of the burrito. 

Tony breathed a sigh of relief. For all the concern the others feigned when they were near him, they were so easily distracted by the mundane. The part of him with low self esteem said that they just didn’t care about him, but logically he knew they were just as exhausted and emotionally damaged as he, and barely had enough energy to deal with their own disasters, much less his. 

While Rhodey and Nat argued about suitable breakfast items (well, Rhodey argued. Nat just looked him in the eyes while she ate her food) Tony took the opportunity to remove himself and his coffee from the kitchen, unbeknownst to his friends. 

  
  


“Tony!” 

Tony turned off his arc, but sat stock still with his mask still on. The aluminum faceplate sat in front of him stared back at him menacingly, and he frowned. It’s not common for someone to interrupt him while welding; actually it’s not common for anyone to interrupt him  _ ever _ , except for Pepper of course. 

The door to his workshop slid open and he flipped his mask up to see who came in. Steve, in a pair of well fitted jeans and a t-shirt, strolled in like he owned the place. The walk used to annoy Tony, the way Steve’s shoulders rolled with each step and the power he held when he moved his fists with the sway. But Tony had the opportunity to study the bits of serum that his father had recreated, seen videos of Steve before the serum. He realized quickly that was just how he always walked. 

Tony spun around on his chair to face Steve, putting his hand on his chin in mockery. “What can I do for the great Cap’n?” 

“What’s wrong with Jarvis?” 

Tony frowned. “Jarvis?” He called out tentatively, but to his dismay, the AI didn’t answer. At this, Steve became increasingly frustrated. 

“I thought he was just ignoring me.” Steve said, almost to himself. “What’s wrong with him?” 

“I don’t..” Tony started to stand as he spoke. “I don’t know.” 

Steve stared at him, wide eyed and stunned. “You don’t know?” 

“I don’t know.”    
“How can you not know?” 

“Contrary to popular belief, Captain,” Tony snarled, surprising even himself with the amount of venom in his words. “I don’t  _ know _ everything.” 

Steve took a step back in surprise, but quickly found his ground again. “If Jarvis is down, then what about security? Who’s running the compound, Tony?” 

Tony pulled his mask off and laid it on the table, his brain running a thousand miles per hour. If Jarvis was down then yes, it’s likely that security was down as well. The only times the AI had been unresponsive was when Barnes made a visit. 

“Tony, are you listening to me?” 

Tony refocused his eyes to meet Steve’s own, as rage started to swarm like a colony of bees, wanting to take individual shots at the other man’s every weak point. But he stayed silent, running through options in his head. If Barnes was here, he’d make his way to the workshop. That’s where he came from last time. That’s likely where he’d come back to. Steve was in the workshop. Steve couldn’t be here, Steve needed to leave. 

Tony spoke. “I’ll look into it. I have a lot of work to do down here, make sure everyone is alright until I get Jarvis up and running again.” 

Steve squinted at him, but nodded. He took a sweeping glance around the workshop, before turning tail and walking out, the sliding door slamming behind him. 

“You didn’t have to do that.” A voice appeared from behind him. Tony didn’t jump this time, didn’t even flinch, like he’d been aware of Barnes’ presence since he came down here hours ago. 

Tony sighed, and leaned down to press some buttons on the table. The clear glass sliding doors were suddenly covered by a black metal, closed off to anyone who might be looking in. 

“You don’t want to be found.” Tony stated simply, turning around to face the soldier. 

Barnes looked rough. Two weeks, and he managed even with the serum to black his right eye. A trail of blood seeped through his tied-back hair, and he stood hunched slightly. His left arm looked whole this time, but dented significantly, and the hand curled into a fist. 

“What happened?” Tony asked, and he flinched, unable to catch himself before the words came out. 

Barnes' expression was just as helpful as always, blank. Though this time, there was a hint of something that Tony nearly didn’t recognize. “I was attacked.” Bucky explained. “In Atlanta.” 

Sadness, she wrote. “Why the hell were you in Atlanta?” 

Barnes rolled his shoulder, but winced in the process. “It’s not easy hijacking a plane from Sokovia every time this thing gets messed up.” He laughed wiltedly. Tony felt his chest tighten at the sound. 

Tony nodded in understanding. He gestured for Barnes to take a seat while he moved to rummage through some drawers. He didn’t have a first aid kit down there, but he managed to find some clean cloth and ran it under a faucet he kept for clean water. He handed it to the soldier, pointing at his own forehead. 

“You got some scratches, man.” He tried to say nonchalantly. Barnes nodded and took the cloth gratefully. 

As Tony worked, the soldier slumped over the work table with his head in the crook of his flesh elbow, Tony did his best to think of something he could do. He couldn’t make Steve stop chasing him, and Barnes had made it clear that he didn’t want to be found. But he had been running around the world in an attempt to find safety, to find a life without Hydra and without influence. Tony understood that. More than he was willing to admit. 

But at the same time, it’s not like he could just hide a former-Hydra assassin in his building. Security was too strong, it would look out of place if he suddenly cut off enough to hide the soldier. Plus, as boneheaded as the good Captain tended to be, he was much too paranoid to miss the fact that there was someone else living in the compound. 

“You think really loudly,” The sound came from the man below him, currently mashing his face into his arm. Tony stood there, nearly dumbfounded, not just at the outburst but at the words as well. Did Barnes just....make a joke? 

Barnes looked up at him out of the corner of his eye. “Did you have a stroke?” 

Tony sputtered. “I-I’m sorry?”

Barnes lifted his head up enough that he could rest his cheek on his fist. You could see the bags underneath his eyes clearly in this light. Barnes eyed him for a moment. 

“You. You’re just. You don’t really know how to stop, do you?” Tony stood frozen, feeling as though the man’s searching eyes were digging holes into his skin, yet he was too afraid to look away. “Even when you sleep. That’s your biggest weakness, Stark. You just don’t know how to stop.” 

Tony swallowed before setting his tool down on the table. The plates on Barnes’ arm were still laid out in the pattern of which the man pulled them off, leaving Barnes essentially trapped in his seat until Tony put his arm back together. Tony knew that, and so did Barnes, since he could see the man immediately tense up. 

“I can’t imagine you have the easiest time getting your mind to shut up either,” Tony muttered, suddenly very warm. His breaths came a bit tighter, as well. 

Barnes continued to stare at him in that searching way, looking as though he was attempting to dig through miles of memories and trauma to drag the right answers out of the man in front of him. In the end however it seemed that he quickly switched tactics. 

“What do you do?” Barnes asked, seemingly genuine. “What do you do when you can’t get it to stop, and it’s too overwhelming?” 

Tony huffed a laugh, lowering his head and searching for a q tip. “I used to do drugs, if we’re being quite honest here. Any of them, all of them, whatever I could get my hands on that would give me a moment of silence. It destroyed my relationship with my parents and nearly killed me.” Tony swallowed. “Then I had Pepper. All I had to do was look at that woman and everything was quiet, like she was the key to my sanity. Now she’s gone, and now I work when it gets to be too much. It doesn’t stop the noise, but it brings it to a volume I can handle.” 

Barnes was finally silent, watching Tony get back to work on his arm. 


	4. Chapter 4

A lot of the time, Tony manages to keep his face straight, and can keep his eyes pointed forward. Now he seems to find it harder and harder to keep his chin up when he knows something that the others do not. He’s not stupid, he knows Ross is up to something, but if the General doesn’t have all of the details just yet then Tony has none. He knows it has something to do with Ultron, with Sokovia, with Nat and Wanda. He’s not sure if Barnes is involved yet, but he’d be willing to bet a pretty penny that his name will pop up. 

How many times is he going to get caught staring into his coffee? He thinks it might be an unacceptable amount at this point, floating back to reality from that place inside his head. His teammates buzzed around him in a blur, feeling more like background noise than his existence in the situation. He blinked. 

“Cap, can I get a second of your time?” Tony asked quietly, looking pointedly towards the figures in the living room. 

Steve frowned at him, obviously confused, but nodded and allowed him to lead the two out of the common area and into an empty office space leading off the main room. Tony immediately made his way to the nearest desk and hopped up onto the surface, setting his coffee next to him. 

“Is everything okay?” Steve asked. 

Tony stared down at his coffee, his answer delayed momentarily while he breathed deeply. Then, he allowed his shoulders to slump and he looked up at the man. 

“So how close are you to finding Barnes?” Tony asked, his ‘no bullshit’ look consuming his face the same way Steve’s ‘Captain’ voice overtook his usual output. 

Steve stood in front of the shorter man, intentionally not allowing himself to rest in front of him. He scowled and gripped his hands together in front of himself. “Close, we got a lead that he’s currently staying in Romania. Sam is headed there tonight to check it out.” 

Tony nodded, filing that information away. He wasn’t sure if Barnes had headed back to Atlanta after seeing him the last time, months ago. Having the Soldier run off to another part of the world? Not exactly surprising. 

“Can I ask you a personal question, Steve?” Tony muttered, his gaze falling back to his coffee. Part of him wanted to drink it, wanted to use the bitterness and the mouthful of liquid as an excuse to procrastinate the conversation. “Why are you chasing him?” 

Steve took a step back, almost as if Tony had just punched him, his face melding into shock. “What do you mean, why?” He exclaimed. “He just escaped Nazi torture and brainwashing, he’s out there by himself doing god-knows-what, and he’s my best friend, Tony. I promised him I would never leave him.” 

“Have you ever considered the possibility that he may not want to be found?” 

Steve stared at him, hard and cold. Tony knew he could have been a bit more pleasant about asking that question, but it was obviously too late now, and Steve surely had an answer for it. 

“Have you ever considered the possibility that you’re an arrogant dick?” Okay, so maybe he didn’t have to answer it. 

Tony looked back up to meet Steve’s eyes. He now definitely wished he had taken that moment for some coffee. “I guess I deserved that one.” 

“Why do you even care, Tony? He’s not causing any harm. We haven’t heard anything from him since the Triskelion. He’s obviously not the Winter Soldier anymore, which means he’s not a threat. Would you just leave Sam and I to handle it?” 

“Yeah… okay. I’m sorry.” 

Tony was right, after all. Ross came to him to discuss the problems at hand, including a few disguised but intentional jabs at the Avengers as a whole. Weeks before the September Foundation presentation, the Secretary of State came to him with what information he felt he was able to share. In short, the mission incident in Lagos with which Captain Rogers, the Scarlet Witch, Falcon and Black Widow were assigned was the last straw for the United Nations. 

“Granted,” Thaddeus continued. “That is not the only incident that has the UN concerned.” 

Before the catastrophe in Lagos, was the complete annihilation of Sokovia, concluding in the death of thousands. Before that, the incident in Washington, D.C. when coming hand to hand with Hydra and the discovery of the Winter Soldier. While it didn’t come to the destruction of the city, it did cause millions of dollars in damage. And even before that, the battle of New York. How do you excuse billions in damage and the slaughter of countless lives? And still don’t have the creator of said destruction in custody? 

If he was being honest, Tony hadn’t thought about Loki in years. 

Ross planned to bring these concerns to Captain Rogers attention, but would remain silent until the UN came together to finish writing the  _ Sokovia Accords. _ Tony couldn’t even begin to think of something to say. 

“You are the others, and as quiet as it’s kept, the challenges you are facing are the greatest mankind has ever known. Plus, most of you are broke. Oh, sorry, rather you were.” Tony had a hard time keeping the smug grin off his face as he stared at the thousands of confused college students surrounding him. “As of this moment, every student has been made an equal recipient of the inaugural September Foundation Grant. As in, all of your projects have just been approved and funded.” 

The applause that came from his words were nearly enough to deafen the wave of crashing emotions as he saw her name come over the feed. 

“No strings,” He continued, looking instead at the bobbing heads of The Youth below. “No taxes, just… Reframe the future!” 

_ His name was Charlie Spencer. You murdered him. In Sokovia. _

“For the past four years, you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That’s an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution.” 

An assistant who previously stood by the door of the office to listen in now moved forward to hand the Secretary a thick book. Tony could feel Steve’s eyes on him when Ross slid the book over to Wanda, who promptly slid it to Rhodey to look at. Tony didn’t look. 

“The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they’ll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary.” 

Because Steve is Steve, Tony hears him argue, but Ross shuts him down almost immediately. “Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.” 

Tony finally looks over towards the conference table from his position on the couch, intentionally not meeting Steve’s eyes. 

“And if we come to a decision you don’t like?” Natasha’s voice sounded floaty when she spoke. 

“Then you retire.” 

“... I am grateful to the Avengers for supporting this initiative. Wakanda is proud to extend its hand in peace.” 

“Everybody get down!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap! 
> 
> ...Please don't kill me. 
> 
> I have a part 2 in the works. You'll just have to be patient. So again, thank you all so much for reading, and thank you interacting! I wouldn't have even continued with this universe until I received such wonderful words and suggestions. Your support means the world to me. Thank you. 
> 
> You can yell at me on tumblr https://fagottinis.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Please PLEASE let me know if this is something I should add to. I really love the idea of Tony and Bucky being allies, or Tony protecting him from being found by Steve. I feel like this could be a really interesting dynamic. 
> 
> Find me on Tumblr: http://portionsofpoetry.tumblr.com/
> 
> Read some of my original works at: essentialshortstories.blogspot.com


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